Skanska exec Stephen Skinnder gets U-Wa vivisection lab demo

Skanska is a massive multinational construction company that is building a new animal "research" lab for University of Washington. On the morning of Saturday, November 14, activists from the No New Animal Lab campaign showed up at the Stanton, Va home of Stephen Skinner, Executive VP and General Manager of Skanska’s DC office. Grumpy neighbors responded with angry counter-chants while calling the cops and even trying to directly disrupt the protest. Stephen Skinner was caught at home, stepping outside only long enough to stick his "no tresspassing" sign in the lawn.

Here is the report on this event published by the campaign:

DC-area activists weren't surprised to meet grumpy neighbors when we went to the home of Stephen Skinner, Executive VP and General Manager of Skanska’s DC office. These folks have met No New Animal Lab protests before with angry chants and phone calls to the cops. Saturday morning, we were immediately confronted by a man we've met before, filming from his van and asking where we are from and what we were doing in the neighborhood. We ignored him as he made phone calls and we marched directly into Skinner's cul-de-sac. Skinner himself came outside, but only long enough to put his usual Skanska "No Trespassing" sign in the yard. Even inside, he certainly heard us call him out for his company's role in building the UW's new animal lab and helping that university condemn thousands more animals to captivity, torment, and death underground. Other neighbors quickly assembled, with one man aggressively putting his video camera in our faces as we chanted. Another used his own chalk to scribble over our messages to Skinner on the street. Other neighbors stood just back on the sidewalk and heckled. Sad to say this community is more interested in organizing to protect a corporate executive than cats and dogs. Our group, however, kept our cool and didn't engage with the neighbors. With every action, we are building our own skills as organizers, growing in numbers, and strengthening our ties to one another and to the larger grassroots movement for animal liberation -- until ALL the labs are shut down!